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From the American Journal of Science and Arts, No. 1. Vol. xxxii. 



NOTES 



TOUR IN FRANCE, ITALY, AND ELBA^ 



It HE U8RARY 

OVOOVGRBtt 

IWAtHINOTOIlJ 



NOTICE OF ITS MINES OF IRON. 



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By Prof. Fi HALL. /Q 



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NOTES, he. 



TO PROFESSOr. EILLIMAN. 



Dear Sir, — Being wind-bound, in the capital of this romantic 
island, and without occupation, I have concluded to spend an hour 
this morning in telling you something of what I have seen on this 
side of the Atlantic. You are aware that I embarked at New York 
for Havre ; eighteen days brought me there. From that port I trav- 
elled, in an elegant and commodious steamboat, up tlie serpentine 
Seine, through a country whose landscapes are enchanting, and not 
surpassed in richness and variety, by any in the United States, those 
of the Hudson, perhaps, excepted. The land, as you proceed up 
the stream, is first level, or slightly uneven, then more undulating — 
the waves growing larger and larger till you come into the neigh- 
borhood of Rouen, where I landed, and where the surface is hilly, 
and even mountainous. The geological structure of the banks is 
very apparent and curious. Most of the rock of which they are 
formed, seemed to me as seen from the boat, to be sandstone. At a 
considerable distance from Havre, however, the gray carbonate of 
lime appears, and still farther up, granular gypsum. The rocks all 
lie in strata nearly horizontal, but of very unequal thickness. I re- 
mained but a (ew hours in this ancient city, famous for its manufac- 
tures, its high houses, its narrow streets, and its cathedral, which is 
exceedingly splendid, and deserves attention from every traveller. 
After refreshing myself with a good dinner, and taking a bird's 
eye view of the wonders of Rouen, I posted off, moonlit, for the 
French capital. There I met some old friends, whom the grave had 
not yet claimed, and made a ^e\v new ones. Paris is not what it 
was when I saw it nearly thirty years ago. Improvement has made 
giant strides in every thing — in the pavements of the streets, in tbje 
private and public edifices, in the national gardens and squares, and 
in the royal palaces. I remained in that gay city twenty days only, 
and then took my place in the diligence for Chalons, on the Saone, 
passing through Sens, whose archbishop formerly assumed to him- 
self the modest title of " Primate of the Gauls and Germany," to 
Avallon. This small city stands on a plateau of granite, and it is 
the first granite I had observed in situ after leaving Paris. Indeed, 



Notes on a lour in France, Italy, and Elba. g 

the principal rocks which I saw between these two cities, are sand- 
stone, limestone, and gypsum. In the neighborhood of Avallon I 
picked up, near the road side, several good specimens of ammonite. 
I reached Chalons at noon, having been imprisoned in the diligence 
forty eight hours, without regular meals, and without much sleep. 
Chalons, you know, is the Gabilonum of the Romans — a place 
of business and bustle, being tlie great thoroughfare of the mer- 
chandize going from the south to the north of France, and to the 
United States. Steamboats ply daily on the Saone, between this 
city and Lyons. The river is about half as large as the Connecti- 
cut at Hartford. I took passage in one of these bateaux a vapeur, 
for Lyons. 

From the water, several ancient towns and cities were pointed out 
to me, the thrilling tales of the heroic deeds of whose inhabitants I 
had read in my youthful years, and wept while I read them ; savage 
however, they may be better called, than heroic. Macon drew my 
eye, and fixed it. Here the innocent Huguenots were drowned by 
hundreds, by order of the bigoted governor ; history tells more of 
this matter than I wish to remember. The entrance to Lyons on 
the river is exceedingly delightful ; this city rests on a tongue of 
land, formed by the confluence of the Saone and the Rhone — the 
Rhodanus of Ccesar, and, Paris excepted, acknowledges no superior 
in France ; its population is one hundred and sixty thousand. A 
Roman consul founded it forty years before the commencement of 
our era. Its silk fabrics are known over the whole earth — they are 
worn by all nations. 

1 took my departure from Lyons in the twilight of the morning, 
in a steamboat which descends the river to Avignon ; an old city, 
walled up to heaven, and gloomy, as was the Bastile in 1750, con- 
taining the tombs of some of the popes, who once resided here, and 
the grave of Laura, or at least a monument to her memory, standing 
in a retired garden, and surrounded by the sepulchral cypress and 
willow. 

The scenery presented to the eye as we moved down the Rhone, 
could not be too much admired, and yet the country disappointed 
me. It is less fertile, and more broken, hilly, and mountainous than 
I anticipated finding it. Over thousands and thousands of acres 
sterility reigns, and will eternally reign unmolested. Nothing shows 
itself on the surface but naked, weather-worn rocks, thrown into all 
imaginable fantastic shapes. But every nook of earth that is tilla- 



4 Notes on a Tour in France, Italy, and Elba. 

ble, is used to the best advantage ; not a yard, not a foot is lost. 
The sides of even the most precipitous mountains are terraced high 
up, exhibiting the appearance of a vast escalier, each step of which 
3S set with the vine, then sending forth copious, verdant foliage, in- 
terspersed with fair promises of an abundant harvest. 

The Rhone is wonderfully tortuous in its course, and filled with 
islands, which materially embarrass its navigation. The water is 
shallow, and the current rapid, but not broad. In size and impor- 
tance it is surpassed by many of our New England rivers ; at Avig- 
non, it is perhaps half as wide as the Delaware at Philadelphia. 
" Does the country resemble ours ?" No, sir, not much ; it is more 
rocky than Maryland, or Vermont, or Massachusetts. " What is 
the nature of the rocks?" They are principally calcareous. " How 
do the mountains differ from the Blue Ridge of Virginia, or from 
the Green Mountains of New England ?" They are more angular, 
more irregular in their forms — have a much greater number of peaks. 
These peaks are more acuminated, run higher above the body of 
the mountain, stand nearer to each other, and seem to have been 
produced, as I have no doubt they were, by the ejection of earthy 
matter, partially fused, from a thousand little volcanic craters. 

" Is the country more interesting to the traveller than ours ?" I 
think it is. Not that it is wilder, or naturally more romantic, or pic- 
turesque ; nature has done more, far more, for America. But art, 
and old ao-e, and superstition, and feudal customs, and volcanic fires, 
have done every thing here. The ruins of ancient castles, and " de- 
serted chateaux and convents, placed on the pinnacles of craggy 
rocks," present themselves to you at every turn of the river, as you 
move down the Rhone. The falling tower, the crumbling statue, 
the moss-clad mouldering arch, the antique, costly tomb, all tell you, 
in lano-uage that cannot be misunderstood, that hundreds of genera- 
tions of men have been born here, have toiled and died ; that genius, 
and wealth, and power have dwelt here, and left monuments of their 
achievements for the admiration of all after ages. Yes, sir, it is the 
old age of the land — the antiqueness, the gloomy remembrancers of 
the deeds of days long ago past ; it is the granite column, which is 
uninjured by the wear and tear of a thousand winters — it is the 
sculptured marble chiselled by hands, centuries since, turned to dust. 
These, and a host of kindred objects, give the charm, the thrilling 
-charm, to the countries 1 have passed through, and this charm the 
new world does not possess. 



Notes on a Tour in France, Italy, and Elba. 5 

At noon I left Avignon for Nismes, in the diligence. The ride 
was delightful — the country better cultivated, and more beautiful 
than any which my eye had yet rested on. The first two miles 
were on a gradually ascending plain, covered on all sides, and to a 
great extent, with mulberry and olive trees. The latter, at a little 
distance, bear some resemblance, both in size and foliage, to our 
common willow. They were innumerable ; 1 am confident, that be- 
tween Avignon and JXismes I passed millions of them ; they form, 
a great part of the way, an almost uninterrupted forest. Wherever 
the olive occurs, there you may expect to find the vine accompany- 
ing it ; they occupy the same ground, and flourish well together. 
This tree is long-lived ; some of the orchards I passed were said to 
be more than two hundred years old. It is not large, never reaching 
the size of our largest apple trees. The fig tree was seen in that 
region, here and there, and the almond tree in vast numbers, loaded 
with fruit, nearly mature. 

Nismes, called Nemausus when Hannibal was there, is one of the 
best built, and cleanliest cities of France. It has a population of 
forty thousand inhabitants, and is celebrated, as you well know, 
for its antiquities — its oval amphitheatre, four hundred and forty two 
feet in length, and seventy in height ; its Corinthian temple, and 
its Roman baths, all in a state of tolerable preservation. lean only 
say, that every traveller, who visits Italy to see its ancient monu- 
ments, ought first to visit Nismes. 

My next fifteen miles lay through an almost unbroken wheat field. 
Few mulberry, or almond, or olive trees were visible, and but little 
grass. This brought me to a canal, commenced by Napoleon. In 
a dirty boat, drawn by a single horse, I travelled fifteen or twenty 
miles ; the diligence then took me up, and brought me to jNIarseilles, 
where I embai-ked on board the new and splendid steamboat Pho- 
cion, now on her first voyage of pleasure around the Mediterranean. 
On the first of June we anchored in the bay of Genoa, or Genes, as 
it is there called, where the city exhibited itself in the most favora- 
ble point of light. Indeed, its situation, spread out on the sides of 
lofty, converging mountains, forming a magnificent semi-amphithea- 
tre, is more eminently beautiful than that of any city I have seen in 
either hemisphere. Its objects of curiosity are rich and multifari- 
ous; its palaces are sumptuously decorated with elegant columns, 
and statues, and paintings. I looked at them till my eyes were sat- 
isfied. This, you know, was the birth-place of Christopher Colum- 



6 Notes on a Tour in France, Italy, and Elba. 

bus. die greatest navigator — perhaps I ought to say, the greatest 
man, the world has yet produced. I searched two hours for his 
house, but searched in vain. The spot, one told me, where he first 
saw the light, is on a small stream a mile or two distant from the city. 

At the close of the third of June we moved off for Leghorn, 
which contains little to attract the attention of a man whose object 
in going abroad is not commercial. I therefore took a trip of four- 
teen miles to Pisa, a city built soon after the overthrow of Troy ; 
and was nobly rewarded by a view of the Campanile, or Leaning 
Tower, the Duomo, or cliurch in the form of a Latin cross ; the 
Baptistery, or the edifice in which baptisms are performed, and the 
Campo Santo, or ancient burial ground. They fill the bosom of the 
gazer with astonishment ; the sight of each of them is worth a jour- 
ney from Moscow. The Leaning Tower I most admired ; it is of 
a circular form, one hundred and ninety feet in height, consisting of 
eight stories, and ornamented with two hundred and seven granite 
and marble columns. I mounted, by an easy, winding staircase to 
the eighth story, where I had a commanding prospect of Pisa, of a 
broad zone of land encompassing it, and of many conspicuous objects 
far distant, among which was Leghorn. It is believed that the tower 
was originally perpendicular, and that its present declining position 
was occasioned by an earthquake, or by some other physical phenom- 
enon. You will'not allow me to speak of the abode of the illustrious 
dead, and tell you that it is " a vast quadrangle, surrounded by sixty- 
light and elegant Gothic arches, composed of white marble, and 
paved with the same substance ;" that it contains sarcophagi innu- 
merable, of Parian and Luni marble, ancient vases and rich frescoes, 
cinerary urns of alabaster, and paintings of enormous size. I must 
leave the magnificence of the interior of the Duomo — its high altar, 
ornamented with lapis lazuli, verd antique, bronze gilt, &c. — its por- 
phyry columns, its group of angels, all must be left for you to ima- 
gine. 

The next pause the Phocion made, was at the little filthy city of 
Civita Vecchia, whose harbor was built by Trajan, who had a villa in 
its vicinity. Here she remained eight days, for the purpose of giv- 
ing her passengers an opportunity to visit the " Eternal City." This 
period being expired, she brought me to Naples, or Napoli in Ital- 
ian, which stands at the extremity of my voyage. I remained in 
that city of business and noise eight days, examining its merveiUes, 
and those of the region around it ; in treading the narrow streets of 



Notes on a Tour in France, Italy, and Elba. 7 

Pompeii, and gazing at its untombed wonders, its edifices, its altars, 
and its gods ; in groping my way in the deep and dark theatre of 
Herculaneum ; visiting the lake of Tartarus, now Avernus; the old 
city of Puteoli, where St. Paul resided seven days ; the tomb of 
Virgil ; the Grotto del Cane ; the Monte Nuova, or New Mount, 
"formed in thirty six hours by a volcanic explosion of 1538 ;" the 
Stygian Lake, the Elysian Fields, &c. &c., or inhaling the sul- 
phurous odors of the still smoking Solfaterra, or in clambering up the 
lofty, ashes-clad Vesuvius. This being accomplished, and more, I 
came to Rome by land, travelling on the Via Appia, much of whose 
ancient pavement is yet visible, consisting of stones a foot or more 
in length, six or eight inches in width, and perhaps as many in depth, 
and passing near the spot of ground on which the second orator the 
world has produced was basely murdered, and over the Pontine 
marshes, of which our company felt no dread. 

I shall say nothing of Rome, except to remark, en passant, that 
it is far the most interesting city I ever entered. I do not mean 
modern Rome. Burn St. Peter's, and what adjoins it, and young 
Rome would be infinitely inferior to London, to Paris, to Edin- 
burgh, and to many other cities in Europe. No, sir, it is the old 
Rome, with which I was enraptured ; where Horace was, and 
Cicero, and St. Paul ; where Cato lived, and Virgil sung, and Cae- 
sar bled ; where are monuments still visible, which tell the tales of 
other times, the Via Sacra, the Tarpeian rock, the triumphal arches, 
the aqueducts, the Coliseum ! What a luxury it would be to you, 
sir, who are an admirer of the Latin classsics, to plunge into this 
ocean of speaking ruins, and spend weeks and months in it ! 

A voiturin conveyed me to Florence, over a country of hills and 
dales, of mountains and valleys, overspread with the best of earth's 
blessings — corn, wine and oil ; a land of figs, and almonds, and 
pomegranates and olives. I did not sojourn long in this splendid 
city. The heat was oppressive, and yet not more oppressive than 
it often is at Washington or Philadelphia. Indeed, the summer heat 
of Italy is, I am persuaded, quite as tolerable as that of Maryland or 
Virginia, and the climate not a whit more unhealthy. My stay in 
Florence was, however, long enough to give me an opportunity to 
examine most of its curiosities. I early betook myself to the church 
called " Santa Croce," where repose the ashes of Italy's noblest 
sons. On one of the walls is placed a simple epitaph over the tomb 
of that wonderful man, Gahleo. On the opposite side are the chaste 



8 Notes on a Tour in France, Italy, and Elba. 

and beautiful sepulchral monuments of Dante and Michael Angelo. 
The chisel has here done its best to perpetuate many illustrious 
names which I cannot now enumerate. The museum is rich in ob- 
jects of art, and of the natural sciences. I have seen no collection 
of minerals so large, and so valuable, except that of the Jardin des 
Plantes at Paris. The galleries in the ducal palace are bewitch- 
ingly attractive, adorned with the finest paintings and statues, glit- 
tering with the richest articles of furniture, with sumptuous vases, 
and tables, composed of the most costly and splendid minerals, in- 
laid, such as malachite, amber, lazulite and many of the gems. 

Florence is sometimes termed " the city of palaces," and is right- 
ly named. The palaces are numerous, and many of them exceed- 
ingly elegant and capacious. Eleven of them were for sale when I 
was in the city. Would you know the value of a palace in Flor- 
ence ? At my request, our consul took me to the man, who had 
the disposal of one of them. It was finely situated, was four stories 
high ; had fourteen apartments, and some of them very spacious, on 
€ach floor, or fifty six rooms in all. The price demanded for the 
entire palace was seven thousand and three hundred dollars, or it 
might be rented for any length of time, for three hundred and sev- 
enty Jive dollars a year ! I left that noble and lovely city with deep 
regret, and made my way to Leghorn by land. 

Unwilling to prosecute my journey into Switzerland, without see- 
ing Elba, that singular island, celebrated the world over for its min- 
eral productions, and scarcely less celebrated as having been the 
place of Bonaparte's temporary confinement, I engaged a passage 
to it in an open crazy boat, as no other could be obtained at the 
time. The distance is forty five miles. She set off from Leg- 
horn at noon. I spent a sleepless night on the waters of the 
" Great Sea," having the heavens for my canopy, and a plank for 
my bed. At six, the follovying morning, I rejoiced to arrive in 
this city, Porto Ferrajo, which is finely situated on a broad and safe 
bay, capable of affording good anchorage for five hundred ships of 
war, and strongly fortified, containing about seven thousand inhabit- 
ants, three churches, one theatre, the hotel de ville, and the gov- 
ernmental palace, in which I am writing this communication. This 
last edifice was in part erected, and was inhabited by Napoleon. 
The American consul at Leghorn, Mr. Appleton, very politely gave 
me a letter of recommendation from the governor of Leghorn to the 
governor of the island of Elba. It procured me the kindest recep- 



Notes on a Tour in France, Italy, and Elba. 9 

tion, both from the governor and all the ofiicers of the government. 
I was received into the governor's family, and requested to occupy 
a chamber in the palace while I remained on the island. This offi- 
cer is a gentleman of unaffected politeness, of great simplicity of 
manners, and is much loved and respected by the islanders. 

Elba is about sixty miles in circumference, of an irregular oblong 
figure, its longer diameter running from west to east. Its surface is 
exceedingly uneven, being thrown into every imaginable shape ; 
there, rising into mountains two or three thousand feet in elevation ; 
here, sinking into deep vallies. Some of the high lands are covered 
with vegetation, but most of the summits of the mountains are na- 
ked, and exhibit nothing but rocks, which a hundred centuries have 
rendered almost as white as Parian marble. The vallies are pro- 
ductive, yielding grapes in vast abundance, and grain of various 
kinds, the fig, the orange, the watermelon, (which is here called en- 
cumber,) pears, apples, plumbs, &;c. he. The number of inhabit- 
ants in the island is about fifteen thousand. They are principally in 
Porto Ferrajo, and the villages of Longone, Capoleon, Marinna and 
Campo. There is little wood on the island, and what there is, is 
a small growth. Jackasses, loaded with faggots, and pieces of wood 
two or three inches in diameter, are constantly seen coming into 
Porto Ferrajo from the country. The oak grows here, and the ma- 
ple, and several other trees, which are common in America : but 
there is one here that 1 have not met with before ; it is the cork tree, 
whose bark is thick, and is used for stoppers of bottles, to make 
lines float on water, he. I have cut a stick of it, which I shall have 
converted into a cane when I arrive in Paris. 

The geological structure of Elba is different from any other part 
of Italy. I saw no decidedly primitive country between Avallon in 
France, and Naples. There may be land of this character in Italy, 
and the south of France, which I did not see. I infer from what I 
saw, that the whole country of which I speak, was of volcanic ori- 
gin : in some places the lava is old, and in others young, but always 
bearing evident marks of igneous fusion. I have crossed the Ap- 
penines twice ; once over Mount Somma, one of the liighest, 
where I expected to find primitive rocks, but found nothing but 
secondary limestone, full of pores, once, doubtless, filled with gas, 
and a combination of other materials, which nothing but intense 
heat could have generated. This island presents a curious mixture 
of primitive and volcanic formations. The rugged mountain which 

2 



10 Notes on a Tour in France, Italy, and Elba. 

you see at the right hand as you enter the harbor of Porto Ferrajo, 
has all the appearance of having been ejected from the earth by an 
internal energy ; whereas those massy piles which stand on the south 
and east of the island, bear no obvious marks of fire, although they, 
too, may have been raised, at a more remote period, by that agent. 
I have spent a week here, and seen many of the mineral productions. 
I shall enumerate some of those which I have seen, without any re- 
gard to system. There are probably others which have not come 
under my observation. 

1 . Rock crystals, of various sizes, from a line in diameter to two 
inches ; all in the form of the hexagonal pyramid at one extremity, 
and some at both ; some diaphanous, as the purest water, and oth- 
ers entirely opaque. 

2. Feldspar, crystaUized and massive. 

3. Tourmaline. It often occurs in the feldspar. I found a vast 
quantity of it in rolled fragments, lying along the northern shore of 
the island, and it must have been brought there by the waves of the 
sea. Some of the balls were nothing but black tourmaline, (schorl ;) 
others were a mixture of this substance with feldspar. 

4. Rubellite, in beautiful crystals, but not enveloped, like those 
of Chesterfield, in green tourmaline. 

5. Aqua-marine, not plentiful, but sometimes found. 

6. Epidote, crystallized, and in irregular masses. 

7. Jasper, red, green, and brown ; very abundant. 

8. Porcelain earth, or decomposed feldspar, in different parts of 
the island. The manufacture of this article into porcelain, or China 
ware, might be made a source of revenue to the government, were 
fuel more plentiful. 

9. Limestone, primitive and secondary, red, white, and sky- 
colored. The white is capable of being converted into a marble, 
little, if at all, inferior to that of Carrara. . The red, too, when pol- 
ished, strongly resembles the best of the Rouge Antique of Rome. 

10. Arragonite, in the shape of calcareous stalactites. 

11. Mica, silver white, green and black. 

12. Yenite, jet black and brown, crystallized and massive. The 
crystals usually occur in groups, which are, occasionally, large and 
splendid. Formerly, yenite was abundant here, but at present good 
crystals are rarely to be met with, and when bought of the inhabit- 
ants, they are purchased at a high price. I have obtained, by dis- 
covery and by purchase, a good number of specimens. A large group 



Notes on a Tour in France^ Italy, and Elba. 11 

of crystals of yenite was offered to me by a gentleman of this city, 
who estimated its value at the moderate sum of three hundred -pias- 
tres or dollars. 

I have made several mineralogical excursions, on different parts 
of fhe island. In one of them only, I will ask you to accompany 
me. Having provided myself with a guide, the only practical min- 
eralogist on the island, and being furnished with little horses, accus- 
tomed to climb mountains — by the way, I had the same pony, as the 
guide told me, which Napoleon had rode, with a rope bridle, over 
the same grounds — we first pass^ the bay, which is two or three 
miles across. We then ascended a ragged mountain, probably three 
thousand feet in height, composed chiefly of micaceous schist and 
jaspery ironstone. On the almost inaccessible summit of this moun- 
tain, stand, frowning on the world below, an old tower and fort, built 
at an unknown period. Descending, we found on the eastern slope 
the ancient village of Rio, consisting of about one hundred houses. 
It is placed on a succession of serpentine rocks, both precious and 
common. We descended into a narrow valley, where the walls, 
along the sides of the road, were formed principally of serpentine 
and common jasper. After travelling a few miles further, we came 
to another mean and filthy village, called also Rio, but to distinguish 
it from the other village of the same name, and because it is situated 
on the margin of the sea, it is denominated Rio Marina. There 
was yet another lofty elevation to climb, before I could gain a view 
of the famous mine of specular oxide of iron, to see which was 
the main object of my visit to Elba. All this part of the island 
seemed Httle else but a vast ore bed, made up of the sulphuret, the 
sulphate, the specular and the magnetic oxides of iron. Winding 
our way up the mountain by a most zigzag path, we met hundreds 
of donkies, almost crushed to the ground by the astonishing loads of 
the ore, in baskets, two tied together and slung across their backs, 
which they were bringing down to the vessels lying in the harbor 
ready to receive it. I pitied the poor animals, imo pectore, as I have 
•often done before. Indeed, the ass is the animal the most used 
and the most abused in Italy, always toiling from break of day to 
dusky eve. willing to eat any thing, and yet always starved ; if among 
the slippery ledges he makes a misstep, he is sure to be lashed for 
it; and yet is patient and uncomplaining, under all his hardships 
and cruel treatment. 



" "20 678 738 7 



12 iYo^es on a Tour in France, Italy, and Elba. 

The surface of the ground, in many places, exhibits a very curious 
appearance. The sides of the ravines, produced by the force of the 
water, rushing down from the highlands, look as if they were covered 
with a thick green moss ; but, on approaching, I discovered that the 
substance was copperas, or the sulphate of iron crystallized.* In 
other places, it is carpeted by nearly pure sulphur. The summit of 
the mountain is taken off. The removal of an immense amount of 
the ore, has converted a large area of the highest land into an hori- 
zontal plain. On this plain is situated a round building, called the 
Coliseum, in which visitors take i;epose, and in which, 1 believe, an 
account is kept of the labor performed by the workmen. Near to 
this edifice is a grotto, in the mine, made by the ancients, in which 
have /been found hammers, wedges, arid other instruments, used by 
them m digging out the ore. The ore is obtained in the same man- 
ner here, that it is in America, by blasting, wedges and pounding. 

I was a little surprised, on learning that no metallic iron has been 
obtained in modern times, from this excellent ore, in the island of 
Elba. The work is done elsewhere, in Sicily, Turke)?-, and Spain. 
It is all conveyed to foreign countries in the ore. It was smelted 
here in old times, but has not been in modern days, nor can it be, 
for there is no fuel here which can be spared for this purpose, no 
mineral coal, and next to no wood. After procuring a large variety 
of specimens of the different substances found in this neighborhood, 
I returned to Porto Ferrajo, well satisfied with my day's work, but 
not a little fatigued. 

To-morrow I trust a good wind will carry me back to Leghorn, 
whence I shall, as soon as possible, pursue my course to the snow- 
capped Alps. 

You will, I hope, my dear sir, excuse me for troubling you with a 
much longer communication than I at first intended. 

Yours, most respectfully. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



020 678 738 7 



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